Lyme Cases in California Rival East Coast

Lyme Cases in CA Rival East CoastLyme disease is an east coast disease, right? Thats what we’re all taught. Since I am on a vacation in Monterey, CA (on the central ocean coast of california) this week with my family, I decided to spend a few minutes in the hotel room doing some research and making a wonderful video for you. Let’s see about the truth regarding Lyme disease in California.

Since I grew up in California and have lived here my whole life (and probably also got my case of Lyme disease here), this article is very close to home for me. I searched for help for years in California before I found a proper diagnosis. Maybe this information can save you, or a loved one, the same trouble.

The Centers for Disease Control present Lyme disease statistics in terms of Lyme disease cases per 100,000 people. To give you an idea of the cases of Lyme on the east coast, here is a brief chart:

Incidence measured per 100,000
  people
  Incidence 2006*  
  Connecticut  
  51.0  
  Delaware  
  56.5  
  DC  
  10.7  
  Florida  
  0.2  
  Georgia  
  0.1  
  Maine  
  25.6  
  Maryland  
  22.2  
  Massachusetts  
  22.2  
  Michigan  
  0.5  
  Minnesota  
  17.7  
  Mississippi  
  0.1  
  New Jersey  
  27.9  
  New York  
  23.1  
  Pennsylvania  
  26.1  
  Rhode Island  
  28.8  
  Vermont  
  16.8  
  Virginia  
  4.7  
  Washington  
  0.1  
  West Virginia  
  1.5  
  Wisconsin  
  26.4  
  Wyoming  
  0.2  

As you can see, the incidence hovers around 10-20, maybe 30, cases of Lyme per 100,000 on the east coast (please excuse the non-east coast states that got mixed in there – I didn’t want to waste precious vacation time being a perfectionist on the blog post).


So, given that “Lyme disease is an east coast disease,” you would expect that the cases of Lyme in California would be much less, right? Well, in some parts of the state this is true. However, in other parts, you will note that cases of Lyme are indeed quite high in parts of California.

When my wife and I first got our whippet puppy, we went to the coast of California and after walking around in the grass for a few minutes, the dog had about 40 ticks on her. And remember – whippets are VERY short haired dogs, very clean dogs, and this was only 5 minutes in the grass. You tell me – are you concerned about California? Make up your own mind!

Here’s the map:

Lyme Disease in Monterey, California, Statistics

FIGURE 5.
Lyme disease incidence per 100,000 person-years by zip code in California, 1993–2005. Wow! Parts of california with incidence of 20-50? That looks like the east coast, doesn’t it? And even a few places with incidence of greater than 50? Well, all I can say is that I DO live in California and I am scared!

Signing off from Monterey,

Bryan Rosner